Twenty-nine leading international partners have joined forces to establish a research consortium Stratification of Obese Phenotypes to Optimize Future Obesity Therapy (SOPHIA) with the aim of improving risk assessment of comorbidities and treatment for people with obesity. Obesity complications are common, but predicting who will develop any of the 200 known complications of obesity is extremely difficult. Moreover, there are insufficient predictors for who will respond to obesity treatments.

Fractyl Laboratories has received approval from the FDA of an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) to begin a pivotal study of Revita DMR in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients treated with insulin. This landmark pivotal study, called Revita T2Di, is a prospective, randomised, double-blind, sham-controlled study enrolling 300 patients at up to 35 sites around the world, with approximately 25 sites in the US.

Laparoscopic banded sleeve gastrectomy (LBSG) appears to be significantly more effective than laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) in terms of weight loss in the midterm follow-up, according to researchers from Italy. The randomised study, ‘Banded Sleeve Gastrectomy Improves Weight Loss Compared to Nonbanded Sleeve: Midterm Results from a Prospective Randomized Study’, published in the Journal of Obesity, sought to compare LBSG and LSG over a four-year follow-up.

Ethicon has announced its continued support of guidelines from the Society for American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), which recommends the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and smoke evacuation in the operating room during laparoscopic and open surgery.